James P. Kern and Margaret E. Turner

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Husband James P. Kern ^{1 2}

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           Born: 2 Jul 1844 - Franklin Co, PA 1 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 1919
         Buried:  - Grove Hill Cemetery, Oil City, Venango Co, PA 3

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         Father: Andrew Kern (      -      ) 2
         Mother: Nancy Toms (      -      ) 2

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       Marriage: Apr 1867 4

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Wife Margaret E. Turner ⁴

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           Born: 1850
     Christened: 
           Died: 1923
         Buried:  - Grove Hill Cemetery, Oil City, Venango Co, PA 3

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         Father: William Turner (      -      ) 4
         Mother: 

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Children

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1 M George A. Kern ⁴

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           Born: 20 Nov 1874 - Oil City, Venango Co, PA 4
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Leona Mae Waldo (1885-1957) 5

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2 M William Garfield Kern ⁴

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           Born: 3 Aug 1881 - Oil City, Venango Co, PA 4
     Christened: 
           Died: 1934
         Buried:  - Grove Hill Cemetery, Oil City, Venango Co, PA 3

         Spouse: Daisy Irene Thompson (1880-1936) 6
           Marr: 1901 - ? Venango Co, PA

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General Notes: Husband - James P. Kern

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He was a child when the fam-ily removed to Ohio, where he was reared and educated. A few months after the breaking out of the Civil war, though under age, he enlisted Sept. 10, 1861, in Company D, 17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for three years, dur-ing which period he saw considerable active service. The regiment went to Camp Dennison to organize, and was sent from there Sept. 20th by rail to Lexington, Ky., marching from that point to Wild Cat Gap, and getting its initial battle experience at Wild Cat Oct. 20th, when General Zollicoffer was headed off and driven back. Subsequently Mr. Kern took part in the battles of Mill Springs, KY, Jan. 19, 1862; Corinth, MS, May 17, 1862; Perrysville, KY, Oct. 8, 1862; Stone River, TN, Dec. 30, 1862, and Jan. 3, 1863; and Chickamauga, GA, Sept. 19-20, 1863, where on Sunday, the 20th, he was wounded by a bullet through the left knee. He lay where he fell until the following Sunday, when he and others too seriously wounded to be sent to Confederate prisons were taken to Crawfish Springs, being held there until ambulances from the Union army were allowed to go into the Confederate lines for wounded, all of whom were thereupon paroled and taken into Chattanooga. Thence they were removed to Nashville hospitals, where Mr. Kern stayed until able to go home to Logan on a thirty-days furlough. At its expiration he was ordered to join the paroled prisoners held at Camp Chase, near Columbus, where he was declared exchanged several months later, receiving his honorable discharge in August, 1864, for "disability, caused by gunshot through left knee."
Returning to Logan, Ohio, Mr. Kern re-mained at his old home until May, 1865, when he came to the oil regions in western Pennsylvania, passing about six months in Franklin before his location at Oil City, where his first association was with J. A. Dewar & Com-pany, flour and feed merchants in the Third ward. In 1867 he opened a retail grocery store on his own account, closing it out in 1868, when he formed a connection with Messrs. Benn and Smith and commenced business at the location where the Kern & Company house is still established. They erected buildings on the east side of Seneca Street, at the corner of the Allegheny & Great Western railroad, and extending as far as Elm Street, having ninety feet on Seneca and fifty on Elm, providing what then seemed ample quarters for a flour and feed and wholesale grocery business. A. W. Alsbaugh joined the firm in 1869, taking Mr. Smith's interest, and the business was then conducted under the name of Benn, Kern & Com-pany. Mr. Benn's share being purchased by the other two partners in 1875, when it became Kern & Alsbaugh. They established a large trade, the patronage in 1877 extending all over the oil regions and into parts of the lumber regions, in 1884 Mr. Kern became sole owner, and the business continued to expand under his vigorous management, within a few years attaining the prestige that it has ever since maintained at the head of the trade in this region. On June 11, 1896, he broke ground for a new store building, into which he moved Dec. 1st of that year. It was practically of fireproof construction, six stories in height and 47 by 100 feet in dimensions, one of the most completely and conveniently appointed structures in northwestern Pennsylvania devoted to this particular line of goods. Mr. Kern handled wholesale groceries and provisions extensively in addition to the original flour and feed stock, finding it most satisfactory to combine these several lines. He was always thoroughly alive to the advantages of good equipment, and when he put up his building it was the only brick block of five stories or over in Venango County. Moving and transportation problems also received his close attention as being important to the dispatch of business. Railroad siding brought cars to within four feet of the door of the old store, and a switch also ran along the side of the present building, allowing the removal of goods from the cars into the house with less drudgery and more speed than the average facilities permit, with a corresponding saving in expense. In 1916 he retired from active participation in the business, which his sons then conducted.
Mr. Kern kept up his Civil War associations through his membership in the G. A. R., having been prominent in William Downing Post at Oil City, of which he was a commander. He also belonged to Petrolia Lodge, No. 363, F. & A. M. In politics Mr. Kern always supported the Republican Party. His family were members of Trinity M. E. Church, which Mr. Kern served as a member of the board of trustees. [HVC 1919, 990]

1 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 887.

2 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 990.

3 Various, Grove Hill Cemetery Transcription (Oil City, PA: Privately published, ~1985).

4 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 991.

5 Frances Deets Latham, The Genealogy of the Samuel Deets Family of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Palm Harbor, FL: Self-published, 1975), Pg 16.

6 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 992.